By Onyekpe Okechukwu
Due to the rate at which price exploitation on campus has increased, coupled with sudden hike of transportation fees and ASUU strike, a press statement was released by the "TAKE IT BACK CAMPUS WING MOVEMENT, OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY BRANCH, ILE-IFE" during the early hours of Wednesday, 2nd March, 2022 calling out the union to come out and fight for the rights of the students and stop hiding behind the guise of “ELECT”. The Statement of the Press Release read thus:
"No doubt, this present days has been so harsh on the Great Ife Students', with a sudden hike on the transportation fee, increase in commodity prices, and to worsen the matter, ASUU strike. These are very hard times which calls for an action from the Great Ife Students' Union, however, unfortunately, the union has become so handicapped that it can't even help matters.
It is disappointing, that while students are made to face hardships like this, we have union leaders who can not exhibit the purpose for which they were elected by students, on the excuse of not being inaugurated. Great Ife Students' Union leaders have been making use of the title "elect" for months now and have being hiding like a baby behind this title to run away from her duty. We find this so unfortunate that students are being left to cater for themselves.
Recently, we felt a little glimpse of light was about to show on the state of the union, when we started seeing a release claiming the Union leaders will be inaugurated on March 3,2022 - at least we will do away with the excuse of "elect". Only until today, the Association of Campus Journalists, in a news, reported that the inauguration had been postponed, funny enough, it was postponed with no definite date!.
This is a total mockery of the Great Ife Students' Union, that in a time like this where Students are in dire need of their union, to take prompt actions on matters that are affecting them, the management refuse to speed up the inauguration of leaders that were duly elected by students into different positions. The postponement is condemned in all ramifications and we enjoined the Great Ife Students to speak up against this.
However, it is also important to display, without mincing word, a total disappointment in the union leaders who have failed woefully in representing the union. In a time where union of other universities are making release concerning ASUU strike, we have union leaders who do not deem it fit to make any progressive stand over the ASUU strike, not even a single release to intimate Students about why some lecturers are on strike and why some are not and provide way forward in that line. We have a union who could not demand Justice for Heritage and cowardly, buried down the justice cry for Heritage, Great Ife, we have union leaders who stylishly avoid having intellectual engagement with the bus drivers over the sudden hike in the transportation price. To mention but little, are the countless exhibit of incapacity that this union leaders have displayed, all ok the excuse of "elect".
We hope to make it clear to the union leaders, that the students do not invest their precious time to vote them in, only for them to start hiding under the "elect" title, hence avoiding struggles that needs their actions. Great Ife Students need their union now, more than ever, and we need a vibrant union that will represent us boldly, not a toothless union!.
We encourage students to stat calling out their elected honorables out in different faculty and department, pointing out their failures right into their face. The Union is our strength and as our strength, it can't be week.
Let's not forget the words of Frantz Fanon that said "Every Generation, out of relative obscurity, finds it's mission, to betray it or to fulfil it".
Speaking to our correspondent the PRO Elect of the Union, Comrade Ogunperi Taofeek Olalekan, Tao said "The elected officers of the Union have not been hiding. You will recall that we have been making various efforts about issues that concern students, including but not only welfare and security issues. We have made several and widely circulated releases on those issues. All such releases can be found on the Telegram channel of the Students' Union (https://t.me/greatifestudentsunion).
Particularly, on the issue of transportation, not only have we been able to put in place an instant solution, which is the provision of a ₦30 Marcopolo bus which helped eliminate the transportation impasse, we have actually regulated the costs of transportation of motorcycles which had gone as high as ₦250 before. Yes, we know there are still many problems to resolve on transportation, especially with the Town-Igboro drivers. We did acknowledge this in our most recent release published on Sunday, 27 February 2022 (please check).
We are not relenting in our efforts. We are not hiding. We are doing all that we do, regardless of the fact that inauguration has not been done, using our resources because we are committed to upholding the mandate the students gave us, despite all challenges that doing so come with. For us, there is no compromising the principles and cultures of our esteemed Union."
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